The community has grown so much that the death of Sister Catherine Hellmann may have little personal meaning to many who live here.

Those of you might want to consider that she is one of the reasons, if not the principal one, that you can live here and be sure that excellent health care is available.

Hellmann, the former president and CEO of St. Charles, died Sunday in retirement in Indiana.

More than a corporate leader, she was a member of a very select crowd, a group of visionaries who laid the base of the great community of Central Oregon.

As Patti Moss, the leader of the Bank of the Cascades and a St. Charles board member for a decade, told The Bulletin, “She had an ability to see things that could be, and then she never accepted the fact that there were too many obstacles that could be overcome.”

I confess that I didn’t know her well.

But the passing of this remarkable woman got me to thinking about those community citizens who, facing enormous resistance, persevered in a dream that has turned out to be transformative for us all. And, more significantly, which people will step up to her lofty standard now and in the future, and in the pursuit of which dreams.

I can only speak for the impressions I have over the past 12 years — the time I have lived and worked here.

So this is unfair, because there were so many people who were here far longer and who met the test of the leadership standard set by Sister Catherine.

So consider my examples to be simply representative, and hardly all-inclusive in any way, shape or form.

To my mind, three developments in the past 12 years have significantly reshaped Bend and Central Oregon.

Two are the products of individuals, and one is the result of decades of work by more people than I can name.

The first — from my point of view — are the creation of the traffic circles, with their artwork, and the construction of the Bill Healy Memorial Bridge.

To say that these ideas were contentious doesn’t do the word justice. They split the city politically into a dead-end, though emotional, divide over growth or no growth.

But today it is difficult to imagine not having them or their benefits.

Lots of people were involved, but one person — Mike Hollern — led the way.

The next — once again, from my point of view — is the development of The Old Mill District.

When I first saw the site, it was nothing much more than rubble. It was impossible to envision much else.

Now it is a commercial and entertainment center of the region and it is impossible to imagine it was once rubble.

That’s Bill Smith’s doing.

And, of course, without the Healy bridge and The Old Mill District, it is hard to image Farewell Bend Park.

Finally, I would add the creation of the branch campus of Oregon State University.

No single person or committee can claim ownership of this institution, and its impact is still more hope than reality.

But a degree-granting university in our midst will change Central Oregon profoundly.

The folks who saw these through to reality had a lot in common with each other and, I would imagine, their predecessors here.

They took on nearly impossible challenges and faced dismissal or worse from many in the community, local governments and other institutions.

And they were willing to stand up to near-constant public derision.

But they saw through to their goals.

They — and Sister Catherine — make me wonder who here now is willing to take the heat for a dream that someday will benefit us all. Who is willing to think beyond the predictable conventions and prescriptions and attach their names to a solution or invention that will certainly be condemned by the status quo — until it succeeds?

What will that dream be?

Do we have dreamers?

I hope so.